hubby and i saw it on Friday. it was great. he thought it a little long, but i noticed he didn't take a bathroom break :-).

there were some things in the story line that i could have done without, but overall, we enjoyed it. i think it set a new standard for movies!

if i were to see it again, i'd take some aspirin or something first. i did have a bit of a headache when it was done. that seems to be a common complaint.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I downloaded it and watched it but need to give a different opinion. I really enjoyed the interaction of humans and avatars in the beginning, seeing the scale difference and later how the main star had the freedom from his paralysis through the avatar was the enjoyable parts, but then it went cliche' and became the same old movie where humans in the future go to an alien planet for greedy reasons and start killing off peaceful creatures.

Last year an animation called Battle for Terra which was also breathtaking but all-in-all had the same plot.

Mind you I did not see Avatar in 3D which I'm sure is truly the best 3D film ever, but in Battle for Terra, a human pilot who was part of a massive ship holding the only remaining humans who were quickly running out of life support on their ship.

The human (Stanton I believe) was saved by an alien young woman, befriended her and later fought with her race against the humans who were attacking and destroying Terra. Sound familiar? This also goes with ALIENS IN THE ATTIC where a small alien sides with humans to stop an armada of ships from taking over the planet.

This same theme sort of applies to District 9 when the low ranking human governmental employee chosen to head the relocation process of aliens we saved from their broken down ship. They didn't like the idea of relocation, humans started killing them off and the human who favored a alien and his son, took up arms against the humans (more in self preservation) but then helped get the alien ship running again to escape our slaughter of their species.

My point, we are always the bad guys, the aliens are always peaceful (even if they can rip us a new one due to their size and strength) and some sympathizing ends up being the hero after turning on his own evil human race.

I also add this to the DANCING WITH WOLVES category where you EARN the right to be accepted into another civilization by accomplishing what the local natives do. We have seen that in a Man called Horse, seen a variation of the above theme in the DAY THE EARTH STOOD STILL and others.

So was Avatar beautiful yes, was it original - I don't think so. I enjoyed it, although the whole cliche' aspect made the ending inevitable.

I hope, if you haven't seen it, that you see Battle for Terra, it is an amazingly beautiful animation that best explains why originality is lacking in Avatar.

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BM, i pretty much agree with you. it was the political bent of the movie that i did not like. yes, the story line was old.

if you do not see it in 3D or at an IMAX, it's probably not worth seeing in the theater. rent it later. it is the experience that is special, not the content, or context of the movie.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I would probably have to agree, and disagree with everyone else. I thought the movie was amazing. I saw it in 3-D, and I think it was worth it for the experience, as well as the plot.

I fully understand that it isn't an original plot, and they really didn't put that much of a different spin on the end (or any part) of the movie. But then again, I have yet to see a love movie that goes against the basic "love story plot" (boy meets girl - boy falls in love with boy - boy wants girl but can't have girl - something happens - girl falls in love with boy but boy doesn't want girl - something happens - the two live happily ever after). But love stories have been continuously redone for the past 60 years, with the same plot.

It isn't always the plot, but the way the story is told that makes a good movie. For me, I'm Buddhist, and Avatar has several subtle buddhist points throughout the movie that truly speaks to me (such as interconnectiveness, compassion, living in balance and harmony, ect.).

For me, the plot wasn't original, but the way it was portrayed was. The effects were phenomenal and it's worth seeing. Just my two cents though.

I saw it 2 weeks ago. I just loved the special effects although I did not see it in 3D. Hubby and I are going to see it again at the IMAX theater. It was a visually beautiful movie with a good message. I have to agree with many things specialkayme has written, as I also am a meditator and just loved the spiritual messages of the natives.

It definitely wasn't a perfect movie and the love story could have been developed a bit more, but it was very entertaining for me, and that's all I truly want in the end. Just to be transported away for a few hours.

I loved it - the blending of effects and live action is really rising to a high level.

The story of the technologically advanced civilization forcing the "sub human savages" to trade glass beads for unobtainium doesn't just seem like a cliche because we've seen it so many times on the screen - We've seen it just as often in the history books. It's what humans do to each other so it's likely that we would do it to others.

Spices, gold, land, oil, diamonds, water - all unobtainium that we humans have killed each other and destroyed cultures for at some point.

I don't believe there is such a thing anymore as the perfect movie as we all have become critics in this day & age of special effects/editing, etc...

You know what I'm talking about, we watch a movie & insist the plot could have been more like this or the ending could have been better if...

I'm trying not to be such a critic myself anymore and just enjoy the movie experience albeit difficult at times, but hey, not all parties are created the same either but the point is to try and have an enjoyable experience. Especially so when you're shelling out $13.00 a person for movie tickets & that's before popcorn, candy, etc...

I took my daughter to see this, I have stayed away from 3D movies for years just because they were not very good and I got fed up with them doing things to try to make the 3d stand out, all I can say is WOW, the technology has come a long way, the movie incorporated the 3D very well and I was very impressed. We kept the glasses and were messing around in the truck when I looked in the mirror, I had 3D eyes staring right back at me.

it was an experience worth having. i had been warned that the story would make me grind my teeth, so i went in prepared to ignore that part :-D.

i hope we see more of these done. i know they are expensive to make, but how about something like LOTR in that kind of 3D????

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....

I heard an interview a few months ago with James Cameron who said they wanted to make the movie 10 years ago, but the technology wasn't out yet, so they waited for the technology to catch up. The cameras they were using filmed with two lenses at once, to replicate the depth perception that you get with the human eyes. Just amazing if you think about it.

I'm sure the rest of the industry will be moving in this direction, but it wasn't available when they made LOTR or just about any other movie.

No one answered my question, have you seen Battle for Terra? I only ask because I want an opinion and comparison of the two. Today I had a seizure early this morning, I'm still recooping and this sentence is actually the last I wrote in this post, just added it to the top. This post, with corrections took well over an hour to write you.

I had a brain infection on 2001 and now have seizures. I do Tai-chi and meditate which helps to center myself in the universe. I too choose indian- must have a spiritual or conscious connection with the Universe, especially after having one for so many years.

Creatures that are one with Nature are spiritual beings, I think animals have never lost that ability since they don't have people cramming the 5 senses down their throats.

NOW, I am into breathing, sounds simple, but it is a magical way to unlock the doors that hold you back in your every day lives.

To see a planet and culture that embarrasses it is seeing an enlightening civilization. One that is knocking on the door of the next universe and complete understanding. I looked at avatar and saw that they were at the doorstep and behold it will change there lifes, we should the same and crawl out of this hole we are in,

So Avatar was good,sterotypical and as Kathy said political/war in nature - the only film of resent times was Independance Day where we were the victims and not the preditors.

And finally, YES YES YES - the 30 censors on the faces of the character did bring life to the stars like never before. You can also see final fantasy 7 where similar capture motion is used to have humans walk exactly like humans, but they chose tochange the faces - Steve Bushemi ( the rat faced actor with a voice to match) into a handsome character that aboard the ship captured by an alien race.

So we have all spectrums of bringing anyone back to life today, it is hard to tell what is real and effects any more.

Will Avatar go down as a great movie - I thing for technical merit yes, but for overall story it doesn't have a chance.

Please not, I'm struggling to type this, I had a seizure this morning and nothing seems to be working right - my hands do what they want, no matter how I concentrate. I'm literally falling asleep and foggy, so so foggy in the head. Probably never should have taken the time to write this.

I just wonder WHAT MOVIES have you ever seen that was perfect, a real original from beginning to end film that left you speechless?

I cannot believe I spent an hour writing this, struggling all the way. I hope the post makes sense, I still feel as if hit in the head by Mile Tyson, and have corrected nearly every word I've typed.

I'll name a few when the cob-webs clear from my brain. This Seizure knocked me for a loop.

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I have not seen "Battle for Terra" - and perfection is in the eye of the beholder - mere enjoyment is pretty excellent to me. The most enjoyable movie that I've seen this year was probably Iron Man. The most disappointing of the year to me - Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. My fav of all time isn't exactly a movie - Lonesome Dove - the mini series. Worst movies ever - Natural Born Killers / Blair Witch - both so stinky it's hard to tell which is worst.

Hope you feel better soon.

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"It ain't what you don't know that gets you into trouble. It's what you know for sure that just ain't so." Samuel Clemens

bigbearomaha

Haven't seen either movie ( I usually wait until dvd release is affordable) but on the plot issue,

1) Hollywood writers aren't all that creative, they tend to go for the formulaic and the proven money makers.

2) You can watch the evening news and still think humans aren't so stupid as to fight over anything?

3) History is real. We may not like what happened in the past, but to deny that it happened is just dooming us to keep repeating it. The fact about history is that it isn't always pretty, the "hero's" aren't always heroic and people at times of war don't always take the actions we idealize they would. The one thing I don't like about historical movies etc.. like Dances with wolves and others is how they try to make everyone so one sided. Not every indian was 'peaceful', not every european was evil, not every mexican is a criminal, but that's what movies do best, build on and exploit stereotypes for a buck.

in my opinion, the move was not worth seeing in 2D. the story line kind of sucked. it was an outstanding 3D experience. for that reason, it was worth the ticket price.

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.....The greatest changes occur in their country without their cooperation. They are not even aware of precisely what has taken place. They suspect it; they have heard of the event by chance. More than that, they are unconcerned with the fortunes of their village, the safety of their streets, the fate of their church and its vestry. They think that such things have nothing to do with them, that they belong to a powerful stranger called “the government.” They enjoy these goods as tenants, without a sense of ownership, and never give a thought to how they might be improved.....